Eyes Don't Lie
by CercandoUnaVoce
Summary: A girl shows up at the bar where the guys are usually chilling demanding for Clay's attention. What she has to say about Ash and about herself is something that will change both their lives. One-shot written for the Writers Anonymous Random Opener Challenge.


All right, maybe it wasn't the best way to start off a conversation.

_Come on, Spence! Really?_ She couldn't believe that after running her lines to the mirror a million times, now that she was there, now that _he_ was there, Spencer chose the worst possible way to introduce herself to him.

_Spence, you fool! _Unease burned her cheeks as men's eyes dropped on her. The weight of those looks was so heavy she instinctively stopped breathing that air thick with alcohol and peanuts' smells.

All right, maybe it wasn't the best idea to break into a soldiers' bar and draw attention to herself like that, but there she was, and there she said _it_.

Spencer swallowed. The youngest of the group, the person she was looking for, seemed to move in slow motion. Her breath still held hostage by her tensed muscles, that endless wait was timed by the pounds of her heart.

She narrowed her eyes to peer through the poor lighting of the bar. The first thing she noticed about _him_ was his broad shoulders and some ruffled strands of blond hair peeking from under the cap he wore backwards. And, suddenly, something she will never forget; his breathtaking smile revealed to her sight.

"Wow, what an original way to try to hit on someone, girl! " The deep voice of some sailor standing beside the young man reached Spencer only to go from ear to ear. At that moment, for her there was only the silence of her estranged brother.

She anxiously stared at him, his pursed lips were perfectly framed by his golden beard. _Her estranged brother. _Those words echoed in her mind, was the guy really a stranger?

The instant his blue eyes locked with hers the two of them clicked.

"I'm sorry," _he_ finally spoke up, moving a step toward her. That slow approach made Spencer hint a step back while a little gasp escaped her control.

"I think you got the wrong guy," the young SEAL continued. Now, the ceiling lamp above his head fully lightened his toned body. His eyes glowed, his face brightened by his candid smile.

_Spence, say something! Oh, but what now?_ Her finger curled a lock of her light brown hair, her hands sticky with cold sweat. Spencer swallowed. _No, I know exactly who I'm looking for, and that's you_. _I know it's you, Clay_, _s_he would say, but her thoughts couldn't translate into words.

She sensed it was him, and Clay must feel it too.

Silent stares surrounded Spencer, but her focus cut through the awkward atmosphere to meet those bright blue eyes.

It definitely wasn't the best way to start off a conversation, much less to start something more important as some kind of relationship with her brother. As that thought crossed her mind, her knees became weak. But as the two of them clicked, Spencer got lost in the endless ocean his eyes reminded her of.

Time stopped; silence echoed. Her heart warmed in a way she hadn't experienced in years, not a multitude of half drunk, staring sailors could spoil that for her. Not now that she finally could be part of a family again.

_Please, Clay, say something!_ Her eyes widened, begging.

The young SEAL's eyebrows scrunched together, his genuine smile shifted into a nervous smirk. One quick glance down to the beer in his hand, another one to his funny mate beside him, and then back up to her timid but insistent look. "Wait-" a tense laugh escaped him- "w-what do you mean by _my sister_?"

Spencer stopped and inhaled deeply, seeking the courage to repeat her words into the alcohol particles lost in the bar's air. "Exactly what it seems." She stood still, her cheeks fiery. "Ash Spenser is my biological father - and if you are Clay Spenser, his son - then I'm your sister - half-sister, actually," she said in one breath, fully convinced that if she stopped she would not be able to finish her sentence.

"Slow down, Ash is _what_?" Clay's tone grew acute. Again, that nervous, little smirk cracked on his face, a clumsy attempt to cover for his surprise.

"My father, as far as I know," she swallowed again, her mouth getting dryer than the Sahara._ It was not so hard, Spence, see?_ she encouraged herself, and her light brown eyes mirrored in her brother's baby blue ones.

"Oh, boy, that's an interestin' twist here!" The well built Texan still standing at Clay's side smirked. His little eyes scanned Spencer's body while he drunk yet another sip of beer directly from the bottle.

Clay glared at him, just for an instant, and then turned back to his newly found sister. There was something between them, something that made their eyes continuously search for each other.

"Ash Spenser is your father." A more serious expression appeared on her brother's face.

She could only nod and swallow once more. _That's it? That's your reaction? After this cold shower I gave you, swooping down on you with my 'Clay, I think I'm your sister' line?_

"Does Ash know about you?" he continued. "And why are you here now?"

"So you _are_ him?" Spencer asked and then relived in a sound sigh. "Oh, I was starting to think I bothered the wrong guy!" She put both her hands on her still pounding heart, reinvigorated of courage. _Of course it's him, can't you feel it, Spence?_

"Okay, so let me do a quick recap here," the funny Texan jumped in the conversation again.

For the first time since that _click_ with her brother, Spenser looked around her. This guy was the only one of the group of sailors still close enough to actively participate in the matter. The others, wiser and more discrete, had already left them a little privacy. Only a bit because their persistent stares still gave her the goose-bumps.

Thinking about that, it made her smile how those big, brave sailors could get so worried by an exile, innocent woman like her.

"Young lady, you're right, the Wonder-Boy here" -the man kept talking, waving the beer he firmly held in his hand toward his mate- "is Clay Spenser in person, none other than Ash's son."

"I got it from here, Sonny, _thanks!_" Clay still-gazed him.

"And, Kid," Sonny completely ignored his mate's objection. "This is your sister... um-" He suddenly stopped, a wiseacre look cracked on his face while he took once again the bottle to his lips.

Of course, in her clumsy introduction, she forgot to tell them her name! _Good job Spence!_ She muttered to herself.

"Spencer," she added more resolutely. That was her occasion; she was standing in front of her brother. After years of feeling alone,now,_ her brother_ was right there.

"So, she is Ash's daughter," Sonny turned to Clay, and once more, he agitated the now empty bottle of beer. "Spencer... Spenser?  
"I'm confused..."

"Nice to meet you, Confused," Spencer softly chuckled. "Spencer Green, actually. I have my mother's last name." The initial awkwardness was gone; at that moment, it was Clay the most embarrassed one, even though all his efforts to hide it.

"Well, she really is your sister, Blondie! I can see it now," Sonny scoffed and sturdily patted Clay on his back.

"Oh, shut up!" Clay shot another powerful glare in his mate's direction.

Another little chuckle escaped from Spencer's mouth; a window was opened on what would have been growing up with a brother. _It would have been fun, _she thought._ What these guys have with each other is what I want with _him_ too._

"Why don't you go refuel?" Clay suggested to his friend, pointing at the empty drink in his hands.

Sonny glanced hesitant at Spenser's figure. In his eyes, there was what she desired to read in Clay's one day, the look of an overprotective brother. Actually, Clay had a whole pack of overprotective big brothers right there, just a little bit further.

The young SEAL silently insisted, giving the Texan an almost imperceptible nod. A deep breath and finally, Sonny slowly reunited with the other staring sailors at the bar's counter.

"Yeah, um, Spencer... have a seat," Clay made her settle by a little, wooden table. "Do you want something to drink, or-" he stopped talking to scan her.  
"Sorry, how old are you?" There again, that sweet, little smirk appeared.

"I'll have a beer, thanks. I'm actually 24." She rested on a stool, and her body relaxed. She hadn't noticed how tensed her muscles were until she finally had the chance to slow down and breathe.

"24?" Clay echoed, his tone a little more shocked than she expected.

Spencer nodded, and while her brother -oh, it sounded so sweet to her to call him her brother- while her brother went to bring her that beer, she stared at his perfectly toned physique. Her mind started to wander, ignoring the background noise of those strangers chattering around her.

Now, a smile printed on her face; people always thought she was younger than her age. It was funny how the sailor in front of her seemed to suffer the same fate. In the brief period that foreshadowed her clumsy introduction, Spencer heard Clay's buddies calling him 'kid' or 'boy' multiple times. She even suspected that without that well cared beard he so proudly wore, no one would take him seriously if he told them he was a Navy SEAL.

The atmosphere surrounding the two siblings was thick. Spencer rested her arms on the smooth wooden. Clay took his bottle to his lips. She mimed him, then their eyes started an embarrassed dance, constantly searching for each other, but running away when they met.

"So," Clay finally opened his mouth, "what's your story?"

A deep breath, a long sip of beer, and she told him everything. How she grew up only 20 miles away from him; how her mother told her she was named after the bravest and the strongest man in the world, the extraordinary SEAL her father was; how she believed her dad died in service before she was even born; how she felt when her mom passed away and she discovered her entire life was only a big lie.

"Your mom... I'm- sorry." Clay adjusted his position on the stool.

"Thanks. It's been five years now." Their eyes locked again, a warming sensation propagated in her heart from his supportive look.

A brief, comforting silence, and then Spencer went on telling to her newly found brother how she only recently came across Ash on TV, how her best friend did some digging on him, and how she learned all about who he was, and all about his son, AKA _him_.

"Yeah, Ash has never been a very private person." Clay sighed, and his expression made her wonder what was going on in his mind and why he kept calling his father -well, their father- by his first name.

A beer later, her bother finally spoke up again, "So, why did you came to me, shouldn't you have gone to Ash first?"

"I was shocked when I found out my father wasn't dead like my mom made me believe for all my life." Spencer soundly exhaled to control the lump that formed in her throat. "And when the anger for her lying to me expired, I started asking myself why she did that to me.  
"Now, I've come to believe that she was only trying to protect me. Protecting me from what, or from _whom_, I still have to figure out. But I'm not sure I want to waste my mother's efforts and come across him this way."

"I can see why she did that," Clay said. "Not that Ash is such a terrible human being," he added as an immediate reaction to the puzzled look that drew on his sister's face. "He's just... not the father of the year. Never been..."

"What was it like growing up with him?"

"I'm not sure I can answer that question."

Spencer's eyebrows scrunched tougher. _How can't he be able to answer that? He spent all his life with him!_

"I don't think I had much more than what you had. Ash has always been quite an absent figure." Clay seriously said, and then his lips locked.

"And still, you tried to follow his footsteps with the military career. He must not be that awful."

"It's not like that!" Clay's harsh shot made Spencer's heart skip a beat.

She sought refuge behind her beer, knowing she hit a nerve there."It has always been only my mom and me, for all my life," Spencer softly changed the subject. "When she died, I was lost."

Clay's chest raised like he held back a sigh, and then his lips pursed, but not a sound came out.

"But when I learned about you," Spenser continued, "it was like a dream come true. I had a brother. I was not alone anymore." She smiled, the most sincere smile she felt pop up on her face in a lifetime. "You're my family, Clay."

"You have very high expectation of me." A suffocated chuckle, and her brother's blue eyes widened. She saw a sparkle in them, was that fear? Did she just scare that bold SEAL?

A comfortable silence followed his words. Spenser focused on her breath and listened to the thumping of her heart. She felt alive.

"You have never doubted a single word I said, did you?" She asked out of the blue.

"No."

"Why?"

"Would you have preferred I didn't believe you?" Clay scoffed.

"Was that so easy to believe your father had some secret daughter? Some secret life?" Suddenly, she changed expression, "Do you think there are more of _us_?"

"Well, if there are, you're the first one I met." Again that disarming smirk appeared while he gently rubbed his golden beard.

"So why was so easy to believe me?"

"Your look." Clay's voice was so warm now. "That's probably not the best compliment I can do to you, but you have Ash's eyes. The shape, the color, the-"

"I have my father's eyes?" Spencer's cheeks went in flames and her heart was beating out her chest.

"The spitting image of them, but not quite his look. Not at all."

"I never thought I-I could have..." Spencer bubbled.

"But you're different. What I read in you is different. Ash lied to me looking straight in my eyes so many times that I can't deny the sincerity of your look now."

Before she could say something in return, a concert of beeping phones echoed in the air. Clay glanced down at his own, then his eyes met Spencer's.

"I'm sorry, I need to go." His look instantaneously shifted from her to the other SEALs already on their way out.

"When will you be back?" She stood up as he did so.

"I don't really know." Clay turned to her, and his wide eyes searched hers a last time. "That's how it works, I'm sorry."

Spencer felt an unexpected pain in her heart.

"Sorry to interrupt, lady," the funny Texan approached them in the general commotion. "I'm afraid I have to steal our boy here from you." Then he turned to his mate, "Come on, Kid, we're waiting."

"Wait, this is my phone number," Spencer stopped him, pulled out a pen from her purse, and rapidly wrote the number down on a paper towel. "Can we meet again?"

"I'll call you when I can." Clay nodded and took the thing from her hands. A shiver run down Spencer's spine as their hands grazed, warmth expanded through her body from her heart and flamed her cheeks more than ever.

Then her brother rushed toward his teammates and left her there, alone. Spencer stood in her stool for a while. The silence in the now semi-deserted bar made her thoughts echo in her mind.  
That was a glimpse of what her childhood could have been like if her father was part of her life. _Not that funny anymore_.

She got up and looked around. She wanted to impress that place in her mind, the place where she met her brother for the first time.

Spencer moved a couple of hesitant steps, then she noticed a wall decorated with photos. She approached, and her blood run cold. All those soldiers in the pictures were not going to come back to their families anymore. It was the wall of the fallen heroes, like she thought her father was for a good part of her life. Her heart clenched, the thought of her brother departing for God knows where was nailed in her mind.

She had just found him and now, she already risked to lose him.

**. . .**

All right, maybe it wasn't the best way to put an end to a conversation.

Clay stared at the plane's ceiling with one foot planted on the hard metal, his knee slightly bending to make his hammock slowly sway. He could not emit a sound; the upset look he spotted on Spencer's face when he left the bar tormented him. How could have he dumped her there like that after the revelation she had made?

A lump formed in Clay's throat as the image of her light brown eyes widening in seeing him leave popped in his mind. He exhaled. After all, he knew that neither of them had a say in the matter. It was his job. It was his life.

Well, if she wanted to know how it was to grow up with a SEAL, she had been served. Oh, _C'mon, Clay, you're not like him. _For a split second, he snapped out of that numb state he was in._ I'm nothing like Ash!_

A profound quiet surrounded him. Although, the guys were called for duty while they were chilling at the bar, they couldn't expect much more than a bunch of half drunk sailors to come on board. But it was a long flight, and a quick lie-down and a little rehydration were all they needed before handling guns and running through danger. So that was a wounding silence for them.

Clay's eyes rapidly inspected the back of the plane, and he could instantly breathe the air of home. Cerberus napped on Brock's lap; Trent was soundly asleep on the hard seats like if it was the most comfortable place in the world; Ray and Jason sat shoulder-to-shoulder, silently supporting each other; and last but not least, the snoring Sonny, cowboy hat on his face, laid right beside him in his hammock. It was a good sight, his friends, his brothers, were all there with him.

His brothers from another mother they all were, but now, he had an actual sister form another mother. What a terrifying and yet warming thought was that?

Clay couldn't help but smile at the memory of how the first conversation with his sister started. Spencer threw her words at him like an ice bucket. _"Clay, I think I'm your sister_." Oh, what a declaration was that! And the way she delivered it surely didn't make it easy for him to mask the shock... But he was a Navy SEAL. _Always expect the unexpected,_ they taught him, and man, that was unexpected.

Now, after the alcohol cleared his system, he could replay the past evening in his mind. The way it all started, the way it ended -_for now_, _ended just for now_, he knew deep in his heart- for sure their first encounter did not go as Spencer planned.

"So, a sister, uh?" Jason settled near Clay's position, taking him back to the present.

"Sonny told you," Clay huffed and threw a rapid glance at his mate napping near him.

"I was at the bar, Kid. My ears still work pretty well, even despite my pension age," Jason smirked, but Clay was lost in thought and didn't bother to answer him. He continued, "Who would tell, right?"

Now, a imperceptible grin appeared on the younger's face accompanied by another little huff.

"Well, she seems pretty cute." Jason mimed his man's smirk. "If I were you, I wouldn't let Sonny any near her ever again." They both chuckled, glancing at their sleeping teammate.

Sonny now opened an eye to them like if hearing his name pronounced in vain made his alarm sound, but then he turned back to his post-hangover mode, the hat covering half is face.

Clay shook his head at the way his friend so quickly went back to sleep. "Yeah, it's not him I'm worried about..." he said under his breath.

"Ash." Jason slightly nodded at him.

Clay's mind started wandering.

"Okay, let's stop with this game. You always have a word to put in any matter, why this silence now?" Jason's eyes met his man's and hooked his attention. "C'mon, Kid, spit it out. You'd better take this weight off your chest before we land."

"I was doing the math." Clay looked up at him, dead serious. "My parents were still together when Ash met Spencer's mother; she must give birth to her right after they split. You know what that means?"

"Are you thinking that if your father didn't have an affair, he would still be with your mom now?"

"Definitely not." A sound sigh left Clay's mouth. "I mean, I don't remember much from the time they were together, but I know Ash. And he had no room for other than his ego in his life."

"That reminds me of someone I met little more than a year ago, a kid whose ego was so hard to keep in check," Jason scoffed. "It's good that person doesn't exist anymore, uh?"

"You know," Clay continued, trying to ignore his boss' comment -because _he was not like him, _he kept thinking, he kept praying- "Ash disappointed me too many times to count, but I never thought he could be a cheater and a traitor, and far more, a coward."

At that last adjective, Jason raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"From what Spencer told me, Ash knew about her for all this time. He knew she had a daughter, and all he did was send her mom a couple checks a year?" A grimace appeared on Clay's face, and he tilted his head. "That's how she found out who he was, from some checks! What kind of a man does that to his child?"

"That must have been difficult for him."

"Difficult for _him_?" Clay stopped the swinging and lifted in a sitting position. "And what about Spencer?"

"And you? What about you?"

"What about... _me_?" Clay echoed.

"Don't you think having a sister to share the time your father spent with you would affect your relationship with him?"

"What time? And what relationship?" Clay huffed. "And since when would you take Ash's defense?"

Jason locked eyes with him. The quiet around them made that look even more solemn. "Hey, no intention to take his side in this, but you need to consider the whole picture. Ash had a job, furthermore, _this job,_ and he had a family to take care of, _your family_.  
"Thinking about that, about the life we do, maybe the girl grew up better without him after all."

"Yeah, I have no trouble believing that." Lost memories filled up Clay's mind.

"You know what?" he continued. "I envy her somehow."

His boss kept staring, now silent. The chilly atmosphere of the high altitude started to reach them, amplifying the cold of Clay's attitude toward his father.

"Spencer grew up thinking her dad was a hero, a true man that sacrificed himself for his country. The Ash Spenser I knew was just a liar that sacrificed his family to pursuit his career, only to throw all that away for five minutes of fame."

"You're really hard on your old man, Kid.  
"You saw what this job does to families. Half of us are divorced-" he glanced at Trent, but Clay could read his eyes better. It was hard for his boss to refer to his own marriage too, and on how he was handling his family now that he was a single father. "And others can't even keep a girl," Jason continued, now glancing at Sonny. This time it was Clay that felt hurt in his pride; that statement was true for himself as well.

"Come on, it was not the job, you know that. You know _him_.  
"It wasn't enough for Ash being an absent father to me, he knew he had a daughter and pretended she didn't even exist.  
"He abandoned his own child. What kind of a father does that? What kind of a man?"

"Those all sound like questions you should address to Ash directly."

"Yeah," Clay huffed, "like I could call him and say, _Hey dad, good to know I have a sister_. What a good way to start off a conversation that would be!"

"Would it be that wrong, asking for explanation?" Jason's calm tone slowly started to put things in another perspective for Clay. No surprises; that's exactly what you would expect from Bravo One.

"The problem is that she doesn't want to meet him, and I can't say I don't second her."

Jason's eyes were firm in Clay's, silently asking him, "_Why?"_

Clay's lips disclosed in a genuine smile as the image of his sister popped up in his mind again. "She has this light in her eyes, and I don't wanna see that turning off because of him."

"Look at you, a big brother for a minute, and you already are all in protective mode with her. How cute!" A smirk poked out from the cowboy hat Sonny still had on his face.

"And what about you, Sonny?" Clay teased him, "how long since a baby Quinn or a Sonny Jr. shows up looking for their daddy?"

"Nah, it won't happen!" Sonny's shoot back, but they could see him frowning even under the hat. "I got myself together now."

"Yeah, of course," Clay chuckled, Jason's suffocated laugh echoing his while their eyes met.

A little nod, a '_thanks man'_ mutely transmitted through Clay's eloquent look, and Jason got up. His expression was crystal too; he wanted his young man to clear his thoughts before they landed and jumped into action.

Once again, the muffled silence of his resting teammates wounded Clay. Despite everything he could think about his father, maybe this time he did something good after all. He had Spencer.

_I have a sister_, Clay thought, and finally started to experience the warmth of that statement gave him. Now, he had someone to come home to after a deployment, something he haven't had for a while. He has been on his own since Mexico, since Stella moved out, and he had to come back in that empty apartment all alone. But now, he had a sister to come home to.

Clay relaxed his tensed muscles and rested on the hammock, laughing to himself. _"I think I'm your sister." What a way to start off a conversation!_

**.**

* * *

**_Author's note:_** _Thank you all for reading, and thanks so much to the ones who so kindly stopped by to review.  
__Also, a special thanks to LunasInSilver for the help with my use of the English language._


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